Well, I too ran into a guy a very long time ago in New Mexico that could find metal stuff underground. He used a string with a little ball of something tied to the end of it to find gold and other metals. I asked him what the little ball was, and he told me, 'Its a talisman made from an elk horn.' So I asked him how it worked and he told me it made the string vibrate just a tad when it went over metal.
I never saw him get very wealthy though - but I did meet another guy there that used a dry sluice with the great result of collecting a huge safe full of gold dust and nuggets over the years.
“’Its a talisman made from an elk horn.’ So I asked him how it worked and he told me it made the string vibrate just a tad when it went over metal.”
That’s interesting! But i’d bet it was him, more than the talisman, that detected metals.